- The war between Israel and Hamas was sparked by the Palestinian Islamist movement's unprecedented attack on Israeli soil from the Gaza Strip on October 7.
- In retaliation, Israel vowed to “destroy Hamas,” relentlessly shelling the besieged area home to 2.4 million Palestinians and launching a ground operation on Oct. 27.
- This Tuesday, the idea of a new and long ceasefire is gaining ground as Benjamin Netanyahu is under pressure to bring back the hostages and there is a threat of famine in Gaza
To better understand the latest events in the conflict between the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas and Israel, 20 Minutes takes stock every evening. Between the strong statements, the diplomatic advances or the dramatic results of the fighting, here are the most important points of the day.
The fact of the day
Israel, through the mediation of Qatar and Egypt, offered Hamas a two-month pause in fighting and raids in Gaza in exchange for the release of all hostages, the American website Axios reported on Monday. Qatar, which acted as a mediator in an earlier ceasefire agreement and the release of detainees, denied the reports on Tuesday.
The leaks to the media were incomplete “or completely false,” said Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari, without providing further details about the negotiations, which he said were being continued “by force.” . According to the Axios website, the Israeli proposal does not mean the end of the Gaza war or even a political solution, but a second ceasefire after a week that allowed the release of around a hundred hostages in late November from Gaza during the unprecedented Hamas attack on January 7. October, in return for at least 240 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.
The number of the day
24. This is the number of Israeli soldiers who died in Gaza on Monday. This is the highest daily number since the land offensive in the coastal strip began at the end of October. Benyamin Netanyahu, once again under pressure, spoke of a “catastrophe”, his defense minister Yoav Gallant acknowledged a “hard blow”: the event “will increase questions about military strategy”, estimates Emmanuel Navon, political analyst and former Likud member, the Prime Minister's party.
A strategy more than ever on the grill. On Monday, relatives of hostages protested again in the Knesset, Israel's parliament, storming into a parliamentary committee meeting to denounce the government's inaction on the hostage issue. “If this was your family, what would you have done? I need my brother, you know? NOW ! “ shouted one demonstrator.
Sentence of the day
One thing must be clear: Israel cannot have veto power over the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination.”
It was again European Union Foreign Minister Josep Borrell who made this statement during a press conference in Brussels following a meeting with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Choukry.
Today's trend
Gaza is “at risk of imminent famine” and food aid is difficult to transport to the Palestinian territories due to fighting and obstacles from the Israeli authorities, the World Food Program (WFP) denounced on Tuesday. The UN agency had already reported in December on the catastrophic situation of the 2.2 million people in the Gaza Strip, who were in acute or worse food insecurity.
“With every day that passes, we are of course moving towards an even more catastrophic situation,” Abeer Etefa, WFP spokesman for the Middle East, said during the regular UN briefing in Geneva. “More than half a million people in Gaza face catastrophic food insecurity and the risk of famine increases daily as the conflict limits the delivery of vital food aid to those in need,” Abeer Etefa stressed. She recalled that Gaza has “the world’s largest concentration of famine-like conditions.” »